Genetics and Health

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on October 2nd, 2006

Andrew Z. Fire (left) and Craig C. Mello have won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA”. The award was announced today.

From the press release:

This year’s Nobel Laureates have discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information. Our genome operates by sending instructions for the manufacture of proteins from DNA in the nucleus of the cell to the protein synthesizing machinery in the cytoplasm. These instructions are conveyed by messenger RNA (mRNA). In 1998, the American scientists Andrew Fire and Craig Mello published their discovery of a mechanism that can degrade mRNA from a specific gene. This mechanism, RNA interference, is activated when RNA molecules occur as double-stranded pairs in the cell. Double-stranded RNA activates biochemical machinery which degrades those mRNA molecules that carry a genetic code identical to that of the double-stranded RNA. When such mRNA molecules disappear, the corresponding gene is silenced and no protein of the encoded type is made.

Congratulations!

Read more about genetics at this week’s Mendel’s Garden #7 hosted by Ouroboros.

Technorati Tags: nobel, nobel prize, andrew fire, craig mello, genetics, genes, dna, diseases, illness, health, RNA, RNA interference

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